A specially deployed team of remote air firefighters helped save the trees from the giant Gospers Mountain fire
Firefighters have saved the only known natural stand of Wollemi pines, so-called "dinosaur trees" that fossil records show existed up to 200m years ago, from the bushfires that have devastated New South Wales.
The state's environment minister, Matt Kean, said a specially deployed team of remote air firefighters helped save the critically endangered trees from the giant Gospers Mountain fire.
The pines are in an undisclosed sandstone grove in the Wollemi national park, in the Blue Mountains, about 200km north-west of Sydney. They were thought extinct until discovered 26 years ago.
Kean said with fewer than 200 of the trees left in the wild the government had to do everything it could to save them, describing it as "an unprecedented environmental protection mission".
He said the operation by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and NSW Rural Fire Service included air tankers dropping fire retardant and specialist firefighters being winched in by helicopter to set up an irrigation system in the gorge. As the fire approached, helicopters water bucketed the fire edge to reduce its impact on the groves of trees.
A scientific assessment found while some of the trees were charred the species would survive in the wild. Kean said the government would continue to keep the precise location of the trees secret to ensure their long-term protection.
In both botanical and popular literature the tree has been almost universally referred to as the Wollemi pine, although it is not a true pine (genus Pinus) nor a member of the pine family (Pinaceae), but, rather, is related to Agathis and Araucaria in the family Araucariaceae. The oldest fossil of the Wollemi tree has been dated to 200 million years ago.
A brief blog entry with some photos on how the trees look in wilderness.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday January 16 2020, @09:30PM (3 children)
Before you treehuggers start shitting your pants,
I'd grow one if I had the space. But if they're anything like our pine trees, they explode when you throw them in the fireplace. Better save that wood for a bonfire.
(Score: 3, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday January 16 2020, @10:22PM (1 child)
The Chatham Islands forget-me-not [wikipedia.org] was extremely endangered at one time also.
Fortunately they are quite pretty and easy to grow and have become popular garden border plants, saving the species.
Probably not going to be an option for a slightly ugly tree, however.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 17 2020, @01:00AM
The Chatham Islands people are more endangered since the Ethanol-fuelled arseholes came visiting
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 16 2020, @10:42PM
How about between your ears?